"I don't know, I don't know anything. Please, let me go, let me go!" Raymond cried out in what seemed like panic, but Mr. Zhou could clearly see the malice in his eyes.
This was not the expression of someone extremely terrified, but rather like a desperate fanatic pulling others down with him. It seemed he still had some trick up his sleeve.
However, that no longer mattered. With a slight lift of his hand, Raymond was thrown far away. He threw him so high that when he landed, both his legs broke into two pieces.
Blood-red muscle, yellow fat, and white bone fragments made for a nauseating and disgusting sight. The gushing blood covered the road, and the amount of blood from his two thighs was like an opened water pump, simply unstoppable.
"Ah!" Raymond screamed and wailed, the intense pain making him unable to feign the trembling posture of a quail any longer. He now resembled a hyena with broken legs, howling and ferociously baring its teeth.
"I'll kill you, you bastard, you damned bastard. My legs, my legs!" A string of curses spewed from his mouth. The venomous language combined with his blood-soaked body crawling on the ground truly made him look like a vengeful ghost.
But Mr. Zhou merely smiled and kindly reminded him.
"I advise you not to shout so loudly, honestly. Zombies have already been drawn to this place. If you don't want to be eaten, staying quiet is your best option."
Hearing this, Raymond looked fearfully towards the alley entrance. Without the Tracker's deterrence, sporadic zombies were already heading their way. Sound was what they were most sensitive to, and there was no shortage of noise here, naturally attracting them.
"Save me, save me. Mr. Zhou, I have a secret to tell, a very important secret. As long as you save me, I'll tell you everything. Really, I'll tell you everything!"
When Raymond saw the first zombie, he desperately crawled towards Mr. Zhou, completely disregarding his previous curses and beginning to plead bitterly.
Two long streaks of blood extended from beneath his body, and the dirty ground had rubbed his hands raw. This was an incredibly painful experience, yet Raymond showed no reaction. He only desperately wanted to escape, and desperately pleaded.
"Shh! Just be quiet, maybe these things won't see you after all." Making a shushing gesture, Mr. Zhou chuckled and turned to leave. To him, this was merely an ant seeking death, incapable of arousing the slightest interest. Leaving him to his own devices here was already the greatest mercy.
As for whether he could survive, that would be entirely up to fate. However, Mr. Zhou held the most pessimistic attitude towards this so-called fate.
"Don't go, come back. Come back, I have a secret to tell you, I really have a secret to tell you. Save me, don't go!" The cries from behind were heartbreaking and utterly miserable. But they failed to elicit the slightest sympathy from Mr. Zhou.
For such a person, sympathy was unnecessary.
He walked straight to Jill, who was lying on the ground, and seeing her gradually dimming eyes and weakened body, he asked, "You foolish woman, how did you end up like this?"
Jill's body was very weak, a sign of life ebbing away. At the same time, her body was gradually becoming stronger, an manifestation of another power. But neither of these concerned her; a person who could disregard her own life naturally wouldn't care much about her physical sensations. She just stared fixedly at Mr. Zhou, her inner doubts escaping from her blood-stained lips.
"Who exactly are you? That power, that power to manipulate Fire, is not something a human should possess."
Mr. Zhou crouched down, wiping the blood from her mouth with a handkerchief from his person, and responded in a low voice.
"You're in this state, why bother with such things? Wait a moment, I'll save you right away."
"I don't need your concern." Jill forcefully pushed his hand away. Although her strength was like that of a mosquito to Mr. Zhou, he still lowered his hand in response to her force.
"You've been lying to me all along, haven't you? Those monsters were no match for you at all. You were just putting on a show for me, weren't you? Everything was a lie to me, everything was deliberately placed before me by you. Who exactly are you? Why did you lie to me?"
Mr. Zhou was left speechless by such an accusation, and at this moment, a large head nudged into Mr. Zhou's embrace. The scarred black panther now nestled in Mr. Zhou's arms like a Big Cat, emitting aggrieved purrs.
Gently scratching the Big Cat's chin, Mr. Zhou thought for a moment and said.
"There are some things I didn't tell you, but they have nothing to do with here. What I put before you were all real things, without the slightest falsehood. I just wanted to save people, with no other intentions."
Jill gasped violently, her chest heaving like bellows, each rise and fall accompanied by an unpleasant noise. It was the sound of her body; she was now like a discarded toy, all her parts broken and difficult to maintain.
"I don't believe you, I don't believe you. You'll definitely deceive me, I can't trust you." Her voice whimpered like a night owl, mournfully expressing her resentment towards Mr. Zhou. In what she believed to be her final moments, she only wanted to desperately unleash all her hatred, and Mr. Zhou happened to be the one she resented the most.
"You're almost dead, can't you forget such a trivial matter?" Mr. Zhou looked curiously at this stubborn woman. He didn't know why she was still complaining about him at this point.
"I don't know, I just can't forgive myself, can't forgive myself for being deceived by you like a fool, deceived until death!" Saying this, tears flowed from Jill's eyes. Blood and tears mixed together, making her look strange and sorrowful.
To remember a person who had deceived her in her final moments was indeed not a happy thing for her.
Her voice grew weaker and weaker, and she soon fell into a state of delirium. These were her last moments of life; she hadn't guessed wrong. What she was wrong about was not guessing the final outcome.
Looking at the woman who had already fallen unconscious, Mr. Zhou sighed. He couldn't let Jill die like this, nor could he let her turn into a zombie and rise again. So, he could only break his own principles.
Golden light flowed from his body, enveloping Jill and the Big Cat's bodies like a veil. The light permeated them, making their entire bodies glow brightly. Wounds healed rapidly, and bullets inside were slowly pushed out by growing muscle.
Blood began to flow rapidly, carrying golden specks throughout their bodies. Bones, muscles, internal organs, everything was developing towards its healthiest state. Bringing the dead back to life, regrowing flesh on white bones. This was all that was happening at the moment.
The enormous black panther stood up, full of vigor. Its body appeared even larger, and its fur became even more shiny and smooth. All the wounds left by the autocannon on its body were gone. Aside from slight traces of blood, no marks remained.
Jill was much the same.
The scars on her body were completely repaired, which was not unexpected by Mr. Zhou. What did surprise him was that his ability catalyzed the t-virus, but it didn't transform her into that extremely muscular, swollen form.
Her physique had slightly enlarged, and her muscles had become somewhat stronger. But at least she hadn't deviated from the natural soft curves of a woman. Aside from making her appear slightly fuller and more athletic, there weren't any other major changes.
This should be considered a good thing; at the very least, she wouldn't resent him for this for the rest of her life. Mr. Zhou thought for a moment, then stopped releasing his ability. For Jill, this was an exception. He couldn't use this ability on other infected individuals yet.
Patting the Big Cat, which kept rubbing against him, Mr. Zhou placed the still-unconscious Jill on the Big Cat's back. Things were pretty much over. When Jill woke up, everything would be back under control. This was a good thing, and although many things had been sacrificed for this good thing, the overall result was still good.
He tugged on the Big Cat's ear, signaling it to follow him. Mr. Zhou strolled out of the alley. To his surprise, Raymond was not yet dead. However, in his opinion, dying might have been a better outcome.
Two zombies were on top of him, tearing and swallowing his body. Starting from his broken thighs, they occasionally bit off large chunks of flesh from his chest and abdomen. The loss of blood and physical trauma had almost completely drained his strength. The intense pain often made his body twitch uncontrollably, but he desperately gritted his teeth, suppressing the cries in his mouth.
He didn't want to attract more zombies, and this was precisely what puzzled Mr. Zhou. To him, dying sooner would be more pleasant; wasn't it agonizing to watch oneself being eaten bit by bit?
And very soon, he understood why.
Because the moment he saw Mr. Zhou emerge, the man opened his bloody mouth and, with his last ounce of strength, uttered his most venomous curse.
"You can't escape, you can't escape. Umbrella's final measure will destroy everything here. I'll be waiting for you in Hell, you can't escape. Haha..."
His laughter suddenly turned into urgent and broken gasps. That was because a zombie, hearing his shouts, instinctively bit through his windpipe. Blood flooded his trachea and esophagus, silencing all his sounds. And this was his ultimate end.
The zombies finally claimed his life, slowly and literally biting him to death.
Facing Raymond's final curse, Mr. Zhou paused for a moment. Fire surged, engulfing his body, and along with it, the two zombies also turned to ash. Gazing at the flames, he sighed and shook his head.
Sometimes he didn't understand why a human's hatred could reach such an extent, preferring to watch themselves being bitten and swallowed bit by bit, yet still holding onto their last breath to curse others before finally expiring.
Was there really such great hatred? Or was it that the human race, by nature, became stronger through hatred? He couldn't understand this question, and probably never would.